Folk song about the Afghanistan War

Arlo Guthrie has a song called "When a Soldier Makes It Home", about the Afghanistan War:

Halfway around the world tonight
In a strange and foreign land
A soldier packs his memories
As he leaves Afghanistan

Back home they don't know too much
There's just no way to tell
I guess you had to be there
For to know that war was hell

And there won't be any victory parades
For those that's coming back
They'll fly them in at midnight
And unload the body sacks

I first heard him sing this in 2000 or 2001. Then I heard him sing it again a couple of years later, and it struck me how contemporary it sounded. His song is about the Soviet war in Afghanistan.


From what he said about it, the inspiration seemed to be the similarities between the feelings of American veterans of the Vietnam War and the Soviet veterans of their Afghanistan War.

I'm getting the feeling that our own Afghanistan War is going to be remembered a lot like this, too:

They'll say it wasn't easy
Just another job well done
As the government in Kabul falls
To the sounds of rebel guns

The faces of the comrades
Being blown out of the sky
Leaves you bitter with the feeling
That they didn't have to die

Tags: afghanistan war, arlo guthrie

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